transluscent
by ohmytheon
Summary: Despite being an Inspector in the CID, Uraraka's psycho pass score has always remained low and consistent, but when a bank robbery goes terribly wrong, she must decide if one of her most volatile Enforcers, Bakugou, is worth saving.
1. Chapter 1

**Notes:** This was originally supposed to be for a zine, but, as you can tell by the wordcount, it got a little too big. I've got a few more ideas for this AU that I couldn't fit in this one-shot. Not sure if I'll write them or not, but it's a possibility. It's been a while since I've watched Psycho Pass, but it's one of my favorite animes of all time. (That includes the second season.) I wrote this entirely doing sprints, which is wild, but it did help me finish this in like two or three days. At least one of the roles in here will be surprising, but I've got a lot of headcanons already for this AU. I hope you enjoy the ride!

 **Disclaimer:** I own neither BNHA or Psycho Pass.

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Uraraka had never been one to believe that she was a better person simply because her Psycho Pass score was better than others. She'd always had a remarkably clear hue, even at a young age. Despite every day stressors that couldn't be avoided and the harsh realities that life dealt her sometimes, her hue remained a beautiful light pink. As her friends struggled and their scores slowly ticked up as time went on, she stayed so neutral that even her teachers noted how unusual it was. Even if she did show outward signs of stress, her hue rarely ever changed.

She credited this success to her parents, who had taught her to remain optimistic in the face of difficulties. Despite her father's business floundering from time-to-time and struggling financially throughout her childhood, their scores stayed safely below the latent criminal level to keep them out of trouble. She wanted to be just like them, a model citizen, but also something more. Watching her friends and family struggle to keep in line even over the simplest things made her realize that she was meant for something greater than following in her father's steps.

If she had a talent in keeping her score low, then she should use that ability for the greater good.

Before she'd even graduated, Uraraka had known that she wanted to join the CID. She wanted to save people. Growing up, she had spent a lot of time watching movies about heroes that saved the day. Yes, it was romanticized, but she couldn't get over the idea. Many people weren't as lucky as her. She had watched as classmates were taken away in the middle of exams, marked as latent criminals, never to be seen again. No one questioned it, but she couldn't help but feel that there was something else that she could do.

Even worse, there were victims of crimes that ended up with hues too clouded to be fixed. If there was a chance that she could save people from not only criminals but themselves, then it was her responsibility to do that. She'd learned early on that her crime coefficient rarely wavered. After being bullied relentlessly for her thrift shop clothes, the school's counselor had been concerned about her. She'd kept the situation a secret for a year so that no one would get in trouble. Allowing that kind of stress to fester was dangerous. However, when she was scanned by the Sybil System, they had found that her score had only gone up a single point. The counselor had been shocked.

Less than a year later, her bully was pulled out of the school, marked as a latent criminal at a mere eleven years of age. Uraraka wondered to this day if she could've helped him. Maybe, if she'd said something earlier about the bullying, he would've been able to get the therapy that he'd needed to keep his score down. By keeping quiet, she'd inadvertently hurt him as well. The school counselor had told her that it wasn't her fault, but for the first time she had felt the sense that she could've done something.

Joining the CID had shocked her friends and scared her parents. Uraraka knew what she looked like. She was a short young woman with brown hair that framed her round face and rosy cheeks and a soft body that looked like it was meant more for cuddling than chasing down criminals. She smiled a lot, laughed at bad jokes, and had a cheery disposition that was not common in the CID. Her top grades allowed her to apply, but she had no doubt that it was her exceptional Psycho Pass score that had got her the job as an Inspector. That relatively flat line would impress anyone, even the Enforcers positioned beneath her on Division 2.

It didn't impress everyone though.

Uraraka kicked the door to their office open, a large casefile in one hand, a tray with four coffees in the other, and a bag filled with breakfast pastries caught between her teeth. Her brow was furrowed in a concentrated expression as she nudged her way inside and then carefully made her way over to her desk. First, she set down the precarious hot coffees, then took the bag out of her mouth, before finally setting the file down and sighing in relief. When she turned around, however, she was met with the barrel of a Dominator pointed at her and she nearly jumped out of her socks.

"Bakugou!" Inspector Iida reproached as he stepped into the room. "You do _not_ point your Dominator at an Inspector!"

The Enforcer in question raised an eyebrow, but didn't lower the gun, his eyes glowing a bright blue as the Sybil System assessed whether she was a criminal or not. With the initial shock over, Uraraka relaxed and leaned back against her desk. Iida opened his mouth to further reprimand him, but she held up a hand to stop him. The Dominator posed no threat to her. Not only was her score well below the latent criminal level, but Enforcers couldn't use the guns against Inspectors. It was little more than a scanner in Bakugou's hands when put against her. When the Dominator finally finished its judgement, he lowered the gun and his eyebrow.

"Satisfied?" Uraraka asked with perhaps a touch of sass.

Katsuki Bakugou certainly didn't look it, judging from the light scowl on his face. "Just checking."

"You say that every time you assess me," Uraraka pointed out, folding her arms across her chest.

Iida stormed over and snatched the weapon out of Bakugou's hands. "You shouldn't even have this outside of storage. I should check your crime coefficient. You know that if it gets too high–"

"I know, Four Eyes, I know," Bakugou interrupted. "You'll be forced to shoot me and I'll explode on everyone."

Unlike most people when faced with that thought, he didn't look bothered in the slightest. Uraraka honestly didn't know much about him. Despite being the loudest (and admittedly most dangerous) one on the team, Bakugou wasn't an open book. He didn't talk about his past or how he had come to be an Enforcer. Most of the others on the team and in other divisions assumed that he'd been labeled a latent criminal when he was a kid, considering his crass and careless behavior. It was like he'd never bothered trying to conform to society or he'd simply turned his back on it.

Iida had once told her that Bakugou had one of the highest crime coefficients in the CID. Considering that his mere presence had a habit of raising the Area Stress Level,h he was a constant threat to be watched, not to mention his ability to raise the scores of the Inspectors that were entrusted with keeping him in line. Iida was one of the few who was capable of handling him without his hue becoming too clouded. Other Inspectors had not been so lucky, including one that was now an Enforcer alongside him on Division 2.

Izuku Midoriya had reassured her that it was not Bakugou's fault that he had fallen from Inspector to Enforcer. His own Psycho Pass score was just above the 100 mark that labeled him as a latent criminal. She couldn't see how with his baby face, freckles, and bright demeanor, but sure enough, when he'd suggested she check him, she had been shocked to find his score at 105. Once past that mark, even if it went back under the safe level, he could never go back to being an Inspector.

"Try and at least act like you care about how your actions affect those around you," Iida said as he put the Dominator back in its storage case.

"I dunno," Enforcer Kaminari quipped as he spun around in his seat in front of his computer. "I think it'd be kinda funny. Then he really would be King Explodo."

Bakugou reared on him. "How about next time I aim it at your face?"

Midoriya frantically waved his hands in the air, a nervous smile on his face. "Hey, let's all calm down! It's early and it's been a good week. Let's keep up the solid work!"

"Don't tell me what to do, Deku!" Bakugou snapped.

Uraraka rolled her eyes, but a fond smile slipped onto her face as she unfolded her arms and turned back around to her desk. Most people wouldn't think that a job in the CID was something that could be enjoyed – and she would be the first to admit that it was incredibly hard – but after six months of working on this team with no losses, she could honestly say that it felt a lot like home. These people were her family. Besides Iida, they would never be allowed the same freedom that she experienced, but they risked their lives daily to ensure that other people could.

How could she not respect them for that? Although they had already been marked as defunct members of society, they still served and protected it. Even Bakugou with his crude remarks, volatile nature, and general dismissiveness threw himself in the line of fire. They didn't just risk getting injured or killed on the job. There was always that looming threat of their crime coefficient getting too high or their hue too dark. If that were to happen, it was up to Iida and Uraraka to put them down.

This job was known for ruining people's psycho passes. She attended regular therapy sessions to ensure that it didn't happen to her, although her therapist was always surprised to find her score still low. The Enforcers did this job under the threat of death to protect a society that no longer wanted anything to do with them. They had all defended and protected her, be it against other criminals or other division members that didn't believe she was capable of her job. She believed that there was goodness in them.

"No one in the CID should be capable of having a score that low or hue so clear," Bakugou grumbled under his breath as he dropped into his seat. "It's unnatural."

Uraraka stepped past him to hand Kaminari a coffee and snack. "It's always been like that. I couldn't tell you why."

"It's because you're the sweetest person ever," Kaminari said before chugging half the coffee in one go and taking a massive bite out of the doughnut. He wasn't necessarily the brightest bulb on their team, but he was a whiz with technology and had a go-getter attitude that made people laugh. His voice was muffled and barely understandable, but she thought he added something like, "You are a gift."

Bakugou snapped, "Don't act like an animal," and reached out to smack him, but Kaminari rolled out of the way, cackling with a mouthful of food.

"Oh, you remembered my favorite flavor!" Mina gushed as she took her treat from Uraraka.

Of course she had. She also knew all of their birthdays. Most Inspectors didn't get familiar with their Enforcers, choosing to treat them more like attack dogs that they owned. Honestly, it disgusted her. These were people. Just because they were labeled as criminals didn't mean that they were animals. If any one of them were to die on the job, it would devastate her. She'd joked with them, worked with them, risked her life with them, had dinner with them… It was important to know that they deserved to live just as much as her. Otherwise, what were they doing?

Midoriya quietly thanked her, retreating back to the safety of his desk, and then she handed the last coffee and treat to Iida. They took turns getting breakfast twice a week for everyone. It was an easy way to get to know everyone. He had appreciated her initiative when she came up with the idea. Apparently his partner in between Midoriya and her had not been so friendly or warm. He'd escaped with his score still intact, but had requested a transfer after nearly coming to blows with Bakugou.

"Hey, where the hell is mine?" Bakugou demanded.

"You'll get one when you start being nice," Uraraka chirped teasingly before she sat down.

Kaminari and Mina laughed. Midoriya wisely stayed quiet behind his computer, although he was smiling. Meanwhile, Bakugou seethed and mumbled some choice words under his breath loud enough for her to hear. It only made her snort. He had such a colorful language. She wondered if he'd talked like this before his score had gone up or if he'd given himself the leeway to do so only after. Foul language did affect some people's hue.

A ringing sound interrupted the light-hearted air in the room, the tension immediately thickening. Iida pulled up the message on his screen and quickly read it over. The frown on his suddenly pale face told her that it was bad. Even the others noticed. Kaminari sunk in his seat while Bakugou wiped his face clean.

"A bank robbery in process," Iida notified them, not looking away from the screen. "Five confirmed dead, at least sixteen hostages, four known criminals. There's threat of a bomb as well."

Bakugou jumped to his feet. "Finally, some fucking action."

"This isn't a good thing," Midoriya pointed out.

Everyone prepared to head out as Iida gave them further instructions and details. Uraraka watched the Enforcers carefully as they walked out of the office. It had been a quiet week, as Midoriya had said earlier, but it appeared as if their peace had finally been disrupted. She waited for her team to file into the back of the transport vehicle before slipping into the passenger side of Iida's car. She hated the way they had to move Enforcers, but that was how it had always been done.

"Uraraka."

She turned to Iida, who looked more tense than normal. It had concerned her at first, thinking of how uptight Iida always seemed to be, until she'd realized that was just his nature. This time felt different. His knuckles were white on the steering wheel and his jaw was clenched, the muscles in his face and neck looking tight. Although his eyes were focused on the road ahead, they were distant as well, like his mind was elsewhere.

"Keep a close eye on Bakugou," Iida told her, startling her out of her thoughts.

"I always watch my Enforcers carefully," Uraraka replied, not liking the direction of this conversation.

For his part, Iida didn't seem to either. "His crime coefficient levels have taken a sharp turn in the past month. If you have to turn your Dominator on him at any point, I'm afraid the outcome of Sybil's judgement might not be so kind."

A shadow fell over Uraraka's face. As an Inspector, she had been forced to turn her weapon a twice on her subordinates. She'd done it once on Bakugou so that he wouldn't eliminate a victim that had been deemed beyond saving. The other time had been surprisingly on Midoriya, who had gotten into it viciously with a criminal. Both times she had been lucky in that they had only been paralyzed, but it could've been much worse. Midoriya had apologized, deeply embarrassed by his behavior. Bakugou had not, even though she had apologized to him.

" _You did what you judged you had to do,"_ Bakugou had scoffed. " _It's your job, not mine, to decide what to do with me."_

Uraraka hadn't known what to do with that. She still didn't. Here they were now, months later, and Iida was telling her to watch him – or maybe watch her own back. Bakugou couldn't hurt her with a Dominator, but he was taller than her, broader and more muscular. She knew how to fight, but she'd seen firsthand how brutal he could be. Enforcers were criminals. The worst of the bunch deemed good enough to be put to work so that Inspectors didn't cloud their hue. They were, essentially, sacrificial pawns at the end of the day.

Not to her. Each and every one of them meant something to her, even Bakugou.

"He'll be fine," Uraraka reassured her partner, turning her eyes to the road.

Iida took a deep breath and relaxed his shoulders. "His score had started to level itself. I don't know what changed. I went back through our cases, but didn't find any outliers. Maybe it's just the stress of the job."

It wasn't a funny situation, but Uraraka still chuckled, albeit somewhat mirthlessly. "I don't think this job stresses him out. If anything, it's a way for him to blow off steam. Without it, I don't know what he'd do."

"I'd rather not find out," Iida mumbled. He shook his head, getting rid of any lingering nasty thoughts. "Either way, I want you to be vigilant. If anything goes wrong, I don't want the others getting dragged into it." He peered at her out of the corner of his eyes right as she glanced back at him. "Bakugou is focused on you. I'd watch that as well. You wouldn't be the first Inspector he's brought down and not the last."

"If he's such a threat to Inspectors, then why is he still an Enforcer?" Uraraka asked curiously. Good Inspectors were hard enough to come by. This was not a job that many people sought out. It was dangerous for multiple reasons, death and getting rejected by society only two of them.

Iida didn't hesitate for a moment when he answered very seriously, "Because he's too good at his job. He's the best Enforcer the CID has."

The conversation ended after that. The blockade surrounding the bank could be seen in the distance, returning the tension in the car. Behind them was the police vehicle that contained their Enforcers. She couldn't help but think of Bakugou's narrowed, distrusting eyes as he'd lowered the Dominator from her. Had he been like this with the other Inspectors that had either left or fallen to the wayside? Was it just her that he was so aggressive with? Iida had told her to keep an eye on him, but he hadn't needed to say anything. She already did.

Once in front of the bank, she stepped out of the car and they got ready to work. While their team picked out their Dominators, Iida explained the situation in further detail with the hologram information that the Sybil System had been able to give him and they created a plan. As usual, the Enforcers took the brunt of the work and put themselves on the line the most. It was their job to hunt and take down the bad guys. The Inspectors made sure that they did that job and didn't go overboard in the process. A person's crime coefficient was more likely to raise the higher it was.

"Hey," Uraraka said right before Bakugou followed Midoriya around the back of the bank. He paused and glanced back at her, his Dominator held loosely in his hands before him. The look in his eyes was unreadable, but she got the sense that he was the one trying to read and pick her apart. She gave him a determined look. "Be careful."

"Worried about me, Inspector?" Bakugou drawled.

Uraraka smiled, trying to put more strength in it than she suddenly felt she had. "Should I be?"

Bakugou didn't answer her. His expression changed, if only for a moment, to something tangible that made her want to reach out to him and touch his face. She didn't. It would've been highly inappropriate. There was something about that look that made her feel like something was missing. If he had been any other person, she would have given him physical comfort, but she couldn't. He was an Enforcer; she was an Inspector. There was a carefully drawn line between them for a reason and it was to protect her. He knew that, which was perhaps why he turned away from her without responding and disappeared into the dark alley.

All Uraraka could do was stare after he'd gone and hope that things would be okay. She had to believe that they would. It was part of why her hue remained so clear. She believed in so many good things. Even when they were dashed away, she kept on believing. Nothing could shatter her.

How could she have been so foolish?

Maybe she should've taken Iida's words more to heart. Maybe trusting her Enforcers or treating them like humans was a mistake. Maybe she wasn't meant for this job. She was too compassionate, too bright, too hopeful. People like that weren't meant to be Inspectors. Why should she have risked clouding her hue for people that had ignored their own? Maybe she really was stupid for believing that she could do something – that she could save people from themselves – that she could save those that had already gone to the dark.

She really was an idiot for believing that she could save someone as far gone as Bakugou.

It took less than twenty minutes for reality to come crashing down on her, ripping her hopes to shreds and leaving her standing in the wake of a horror she had never imagined. The bloodshed in the bank had been worse than they had realized, the criminals further gone than they'd thought. It hadn't just been a bank robbery and a hostage situation. It had been a full-on meltdown. It happened sometimes when people were flagged by bots and told to get therapy or face being detained in a facility. Some people got help and some… Well, some tipped over completely and went on a rampage, feeling like they had nothing left to lose.

Uraraka found herself standing in the middle of the bank, her Dominator trembling in her hands as she stared at the scene before her. Half of the hostages had been killed. Kaminari sat in the corner with his back to the wall and a hand on his shoulder to keep his gunshot wound from bleeding all over the place, the goofy smile on his face replaced by a clammy complexion and grit teeth. Two of the bank robbers were dead, Bakugou's and Midoriya's Dominators having decided that they were too far gone to be kept alive. It broke Uraraka's heart whenever that happened, even if they had done terrible things.

Movement in the corner of her peripheral vision caught Uraraka's eye and she turned just in time to see a gun pointed at her. She dived to the side as a gunshot exploded and Kaminari screamed her name. It hit the wall behind her and she scrambled to take cover behind a large marble pillar. More gunshots pierced the air and she winced. Glancing around, she spotted Kaminari's dropped Dominator in the middle of the floor and then caught eyes with him where he had hid underneath a table. Both of them were pinned in their positions.

"Hey, shitface!"

Uraraka's heart skipped a beat upon recognizing Bakugou's voice. She would've known it was him just by his choice of words. The sound of a Dominator letting loose a paralyzing shot resounded in the air, but there was only a grunt of pain that followed instead of a body collapsing. She moved around the pillar, trying to find a vantage point to take out the shooter when a hand grabbed her hair from behind and she was dragged from her hiding place. Before she could move to aim her weapon at her attacker, he ripped it from her hand and used the butt of it to whack her in the head. Stars and black spots burst into her vision and she tripped over her own feet as her mind struggled to stay aware.

When she came to her senses again, she found herself behind held hostage, the muzzle of an old school handgun pressed against her temple and one of her arms twisted painfully behind her back. Her attacker was much larger than her and reeked of sweat, likely either due to adrenaline or narcotics. A lot of people boosted before commiting a crime so that the Dominator paralyzers had less of a chance working on them.

Bakugou stood in front of her, pointing the Dominator in her direction as he had done an hour ago. There was a cold expression on his face, one that said he would get the job done no matter what, and a fire in his red eyes that made him look like the devil himself. Blood stained his jacket, the red liquid shining in the light of the sun peeking through the broken windows. He stood straight and tall, no hint of any injuries, insecurities, or fears. This was the job he was meant to do. He'd been born to be an Enforcer.

At least that was the air he gave off. She could tell by her captor's shuffling feet and the way he tightened his grip on her and began to breathe heavily that he could feel the dangerous aura that Bakugou exuded.

"You can't shoot me!" her captor shouted in a panic. "Not while I've got your Inspector!"

Bakugou eyes narrowed into slits. "I can't believe you let yourself get captured."

Was he actually directing his anger towards her in a moment like this? She would've told him off if not for the fact that she was concerned that any odd or sudden movement from her would trip the guy into pulling the trigger. However, her jaw dropped when she noticed Bakugou aim the Dominator a little lower and the telltale blue glow in his eyes. He was assessing her. She was being held captive and could potentially die and he was making sure her score was at an appropriate level.

 _Is he mad?_ Uraraka couldn't help but wonder, even as her heart pounded in her chest. She cringed as the man lifted her arm up higher, forcing her to step on her tiptoes to relieve some of the pressure.

To be honest, when Bakugou frowned, Uraraka couldn't tell if it was a good or bad thing. Had her score gone too high? Her mind flashed to all the victims of crimes whose hues had become too clouded, whose crime coefficients had become too high, whose Psycho Pass scores turned them from innocent civilian to a latent criminal in need of being exterminated. The one time she shot Bakugou came to mind. She couldn't let him kill that woman, no matter what the Sybil System had said. She'd done nothing wrong. It wasn't right.

Would he hesitate if it labeled her in such a way?

The Dominator didn't activate. It had judged her innocent. Uraraka couldn't sigh in relief when that meant that she was blocking his shot. He wouldn't be able to get a decent read on the criminal holding her captive and slowly inching his way to the door that lead to the back. Where were Iida, Midoriya, and Mina? Had they found the bomb? Midoriya was probably the only one that had the knowledge to defuse it.

"I'm leaving!" the criminal declared, sounding more panicky than confident. "If anyone tries to follow me, I'll kill her and blow this place sky high!"

Knowing that he couldn't get a shot, Bakugou let the Dominator fall harmlessly to his side in one hand and it went into inactive mode. Then, he tilted his head in a curious manner. "You don't have the detonator." His tone was strange, off, but Uraraka had no time to process it before he pulled a handgun out of his pocket and fired off a shot.

Humiliating as it was, Uraraka screamed as the criminal's blood splattered over her. She dropped to her knees when his grip on her loosened and he dropped to the floor. Her left ear was ringing and she pressed a palm against it in an attempt to stop the pain. When she pulled her hand away though, she found it covered in blood. It was sticky and warm and made her want to vomit. Slowly she turned her head in the direction of the criminal, soaking in the sight of his prone body as blood pooled around his head. There was a bullet hole right between his eyes.

Bakugou had shot and killed him with an actual gun, not a Dominator. He must have taken it from one of the downed bank robbers. Horror filled her to the brim until she felt like she was choking on it. He shouldn't be anywhere near that. If anyone were to point a Dominator at him with that in his hand, it would determine to exterminate him on the spot. It would judge him too guilty to live. He would die. And for what? Because he'd decided to go outside the lines and pushed himself past the limit to save her?

He would be killed because he'd chosen to protect her over keeping his score low enough to protect himself.

"What's going on?"

Uraraka whipped her head around as Iida came rushing back into the room with Midoriya and Mina at his heels. She saw Kaminari pushing himself back to his feet, using the wall as leverage. Bakugou glanced at her before he turned to face Iida and released the gun, letting it drop to the ground at his feet. Iida stared at him in disbelief, but it was the painful realization dawning on Midoriya's face that tugged at her heart the most.

"Kacchan, what did you do?" Midoriya questioned in a hoarse whisper.

"I did what I had to do in order to protect my Inspector," Bakugou answered without any guilt in his voice. He didn't regret what he had done for a second. "That's my job, isn't it?"

Despite the obvious conflict raging in his mind, Iida lifted his Dominator and pointed it at Bakugou. No one could hear what the Sybil System told him through the weapon except for him, but they didn't need to in order to know what was going on. She watched as it changed from non-lethal to lethal mode, growing in size and glowing bright blue as it readied the chamber with a bullet that would destroy Bakugou from the inside out.

As an Inspector and a law-abiding citizen, Uraraka should have stood by and watched as judgement was passed down. It was not up to them to decide who lived and died. That was what made their society so good. They dealt with the worst of the worst, but for the most part, even petty crimes barely existed anymore. Most people lived in peace because people like Bakugou died.

But she couldn't do it. Uraraka knew that her score couldn't be as low as it was if she wasn't the type of person that truly believed she could save people and that good would triumph.

Jumping to her feet, she ran without thinking and jumped in front of Bakugou, throwing her arms out and shielding him with her body as best as she could. "Stop! Don't shoot!" She was smaller than him, not someone built to give another person cover, but she tried to make herself bigger as she protected him.

Bakugou grunted in shock behind her and grabbed her by the waist. "Uraraka, move!"

"Get out of the way!" Iida demanded, the gun not wavering.

"Iida, don't shoot," Uraraka repeated, panting heavily and digging her feet into the ground to push back on Bakugou's grip. She couldn't move. She wouldn't.

"The Dominator–" And damnit if Bakugou didn't choke on the words. For the first time, she heard something different in his voice. It wasn't arrogance, contempt, dismissal, or rage. It was fear. He was staring down the barrel of a gun that would deem him worth less than trash and he was afraid, but not for himself. He was afraid for her.

He'd checked her before and found her score to be sufficient, but that was before he had shot and killed a man just inches away from her. They had both seen people go from innocent to latent criminal after witnessing something like that, even worse when they were in the thick of it. People's hues could get clouded simply by being around crime. It was why they had to evacuate buildings when the Stress Area Level became too high. She was covered in that man's blood. It dripped from her jaw onto the floor, her hair sticky with it. She must have looked awful.

If the Sybil System judged her score to be too high – if it decided that her arguing against Iida's orders and doing something out of the ordinary by protecting Bakugou warranted a raise in her crime coefficient – then Iida would be forced to put her down like the rest of them. Maybe it would only be a paralyzer, but then she would be in the same position as Midoriya, a once promising Inspector turned into a disgraced Enforcer. She had to risk it. She had to do something more with what she'd been given.

A shocked and relieved expression flooded Iida's face as the Dominator backed down, returning to its inactive state. Only then did Uraraka drop her arms. She was safe. She was fine. She had been judged and she was innocent. It was the first time she had ever worried about herself. Closing her eyes, she gulped down a deep, shuddering breath and then let all the tension bleed out of her body. They weren't out of the woods yet. Her score was clean, but behind her, Bakugou's was not.

"The system passed its judgement," Iida told her quietly.

"I don't care," Uraraka ground out. "Let me… Just give me a moment, please. I can fix this."

"You can't," Iida said.

Bakugou still hadn't let go of her. If anything, his grip on her waist tightened. "It's done."

"No!" Uraraka spun around to face him, his hand sliding over her stomach but not moving from its place. She took a step closer, invading his space, and she watched him suck in a gasp of air. There was fire in his eyes, but it was different from before. It was alive. It was wanting. He shouldn't be touching her. He knew that. Keeping his hand on her now was overstepping every boundary written in the guidelines. She should've pushed him away, but instead she pulled him in closer.

"The judgement is final for us, Uraraka," Bakugou said, his voice raspy and low. "You can't change it. I'm not good like you."

Taking a deep breath, she did what she had wanted to do earlier and lifted a hand to lay it on his cheek. At first, he tensed up and she thought he might pull away, but then he leaned into it and closed his eyes, practically reveling in her touch. If this didn't work – if she couldn't save him – then this would very likely be the last time he could enjoy any sort of human contact. It was unsupervised, unscripted, un-everything that made him an Enforcer. For a moment, he could be just a man and her a woman.

"What happened?" Uraraka asked. "What changed?"

"I don't know."

Uraraka narrowed her eyes. "Bullshit."

A cold smile crossed Bakugou's face and he opened his eyes. "Should've expected that. You're perceptive as fuck."

"Iida told me that your crime coefficient started rising a few months ago," Uraraka continued, not giving him the time to skip over this or the ability to deflect. He could try all he wanted, but she would always pull him back to this. "That was around the time I shot you. Was it that? Was it something I did?"

"No, it wasn't–" Bakugou cut himself off and stared down at her, a thousand unspoken words resting between them. He was all sharp edges and hard muscles, but there was something undeniably soft about the way he gazed at her now, despite his absurdly high score. She should step away from him. Let him be taken care of. Maybe it would be doing him a favor. How tired was he of being the CID's favorite attack dog? "It was you, but not like you think."

Uraraka pulled her hand away from his face and put both of them on her hips. "Explain it to me then."

"Your Psycho Pass score rose," Bakugou said, sounding terribly hurt. She tilted her head in confusion. "I've checked the score of every Inspector I've had during my time as an Enforcer, but not a single one has ever stayed level like yours. I didn't understand it. Even when you were being held hostage and threatened, it stayed steady."

She didn't understand why it bothered him so much. Her score was bound to rise every once in a while, considering what she saw and went through with the job. "That's not a bad thing, is it? I took this job because of that."

"After you shot me," Bakugou emphasized, "your score rose." He shook his head. "I checked the records. It didn't rise after you shot Deku. It didn't rise during any of the investigations we did." He waved a hand around the area. Her eyes skirted over the dark shapes that were unmistakably bodies. "Your score didn't rise when you walked in and saw this! But it did when you shot _me_?"

"I don't know what you want me to tell you," Uraraka replied quietly.

Bakugou put a hand to the side of his head and huffed an irritated breath. He apparently didn't know either. "You can't do that. Surely the others explained it to you."

Uraraka blinked in confusion. "Do what?"

"Care about me!" Bakugou exploded, throwing his hand out. "About us!" He waved a hand to Midoriya and Mina, who were wearing a knowing expression and looking away respectively, and then to Kaminari, who dropped his gaze to the ground, one hand still on his shoulder. "We're not like everyone else. We're not good, Uraraka. We can smile, laugh, make jokes, cry, and get into arguments like every other asshole on this planet – but we live in a different world. You can't just treat us like we're equals."

"Why not?" Uraraka put her hands on her hips. "You're not animals. You're still human. It doesn't matter if you've been labeled as a latent criminals; that won't stop you from having the same hopes, dreams, fears, and wants that every other human does. I'm not going to treat you like a dog. You're more important to me than that."

Bakugou practically seethed as he glared down at her and then licked his lips. "You don't know what you're saying. You should never have taken a job with the CID."

It felt as if Bakugou had slapped her in the face. Her eyes widened in shock and she took a step back, the wall between them suddenly too palpable. "Why? Do you think I'm too weak?"

"You're anything but weak," Bakugou said, turning away from her slightly. A shadow fell over his face, one that he seemed to perpetually live in. "You're just too good. You'll only get corrupted down here. It's not right. You deserve better than that. Some nice, cheery life with pleasant, good people. A nice house in the suburbs, a cute dog, the perfect boyfriend who cooks you breakfast and kisses you when you get home from your easy job. That's what you deserve, not this nightmare of a shithole."

That was it? All that fighting, scowling, and judgemental glares – and it was because he was being protective? She knew that he didn't look at it that way, but that was what he was doing. He'd risked dying to save her, after all. He had known that her score would likely rise if she was taken by the criminal. Someone that desperate would've likely hurt her further or killed her altogether. He had known full well that the Sybil System would judge him as too much of a threat and he had done it anyways.

Uraraka poked him in the chest. "Did you ever stop to think that's exactly why I chose this job? So that other people could have those lives that they deserve? So they don't end up in your position or, even worse, his?"

She waved a hand in the direction of the man that Bakugou had killed. Behind her, she knew that Iida was avoiding it. Being in here too long could possibly cloud his hue. She heard Midoriya mumbling just that to him. It didn't raise hers and Bakugou knew it, which seemed to irritate him further.

"If you stay in the CID…" Bakugou's voice faded and he clenched his jaw.

"My score has been consistent my entire life. I don't know why, but I came to the conclusion early on that I wanted to use that ability to help others, even those deemed too far gone, even you." Uraraka allowed herself to soften. Most Inspectors would've called her a fool, maybe even Iida, but she stood before him completely vulnerable. She didn't need her Dominator to know that he deserved to live. "You're right. This job isn't easy. It's crushing and devastating. I spend some nights crying in bed. Silly, I know. I don't want an easy job or some nice, pleasant, cheery life in the suburbs. I want other people to have that. That's my dream."

"Gods, you're such a sap," Bakugou grumbled.

A smile touched Uraraka. "You could've just said that you were worried about me instead of checking my score every day, you know."

His eyes flickered to hers, but he didn't say anything. He didn't want her to know that he worried about her in any way. That would imply that he cared about her and he certainly couldn't do that. He was an Enforcer. Yes it was his job to protect her, but care suggested that he might even be fond of her and that was too much. He wasn't allowed that.

Iida cleared his throat. "Uraraka?"

"Midoriya, could you hand me my Dominator?" Uraraka asked calmly, holding out a hand but not looking away from Bakugou's eyes. She could see a hint of fear in them now. For as flippant as he was about the whole thing every time Iida reprimanded him, he didn't want to die, especially not after she had given him a taste of what he dreamed about. It could never happen. He could never give her what he thought she deserved, but right now – being on this team, doing her job, working with him at her side – she had what she wanted.

After a moment's hesitation, Midoriya stepped through the carnage to retrieve her Dominator. The bots wouldn't come in to clean up this disaster until the CID gave them the all-clear. One more thing had to be done before they could do that and get Kaminari to the hospital. She knew that Iida wouldn't let Bakugou just walk out of here because she had shielded him. The judgement had still been made and it had to be passed. After carefully placing the gun in her hand, Midoriya stepped back out of the way. He wasn't pleased with the decision either.

Uraraka stared into his eyes. "Do you trust me now?"

"You should let Iida do it," Bakugou said instead, trying to erase all the emotions from his voice and failing entirely. He felt things too deeply. Perhaps that was why his score had risen to dangerous levels and he'd become an Enforcer. He let go of his Dominator and it clattered uselessly to the floor, the sound echoing in the quiet bank as everyone held their breaths. It wasn't easy losing a colleague, even if they were a latent criminal, because it reminded the rest of them that they were ticking time bombs.

"Do you trust me?" Uraraka repeated, firmer this time.

Bakugou's lips twitched into a frown. "You know I do. Assessing you daily was never about distrust or thinking that you were too fragile for the job."

"Then trust me when I say that you aren't going to die," Uraraka told him.

"My score–"

"Is not who you are," she cut in, even though she knew that he hated being interrupted. "You have a good heart, Bakugou. You're not as far gone as you think. Let me help you."

Even though he was hesitant to believe in himself, Uraraka had to hope that he would believe in her. She had to hope that he could be saved. It was why her score stayed down. When she had been forced to paralyze him with the Dominator, maybe that belief had wavered, hence why it had raised. Then again, why hadn't it raised when she had shot Deku? Was it because of the circumstances?

Slowly, Uraraka raised the Dominator and pointed it at him. Her eyes glowed blue as the Sybil System began to analyze him. She wouldn't kill him. She didn't care what it decided. She'd throw the gun to the side and throw herself over him again if she had to in order to keep him alive. It wasn't that he was the best at his job. He mattered to her. Latent criminal, subordinate, Enforcer – she wanted him to remain in her life. He'd become too important of a piece for her to simply let him go.

" _The target's threat judgement has been reappraised. Enforcement mode: not lethal – paralyzer."_

Tears sprang to her eyes as Bakugou laughed, tilting his head back and wearing what almost looked like a smile. "Ah, not this shit again. It hurts like a bitch."

"Better that getting blown to bits," Kaminari joked half-heartedly.

"Sorry," Uraraka told him, but she only sort of meant him. He kind of deserved this after the stress that he'd put them all through and he knew it too. He dropped his chin and looked at her one last time, total acceptance openly shining in his eyes and on his face.

And then she pulled the trigger.

It didn't matter if it was at point blank range. The paralyzer struck Bakugou in the chest, his body shaking as it worked on shutting his muscles down. When it finally ended, he fell to his knees, but she reached down and caught him at the last second before he fell on his face. He was heavy in her arms, his body more solid than it looked underneath his black and red suit. She gently laid him on the ground and then stood up to wipe the sweat off her brow. As calm as she had looked, her heart had been pounding the entire time.

Finally, Uraraka turned to face the others. Iida wore an expression that looked torn between relief and disapproval. Obviously he was happy that he hadn't been forced to execute Bakugou, but he wasn't pleased that Uraraka had gotten in the way and disobeyed a direct order. She wouldn't have been surprised if he decided to assess her level again, but he didn't. Ignoring an order wasn't the same as committing a crime. In her heart, she knew that her score was fine, if not lowered now. She gazed down at Bakugou, who looked so peaceful that he might as well simply be taking a nap. He never let himself be this relaxed.

In a way, he almost looked happy, which was strange, seeing as how she'd just shot him. He'd definitely be feeling that later. She did not want to be around him when he woke up.

Midoriya had a hand on Mina's shoulder, reassuring her that everything was alright. Despite the fact that he had embraced the role of Enforcer, Uraraka got the feeling that he would never be able to shake the Inspector out of him. He must have been like her, the type that cared for his subordinates, but unlike her, it had gotten to him. She felt a stab of shame, not knowing where it came from. Why didn't it affect her so much? She knew that she wasn't heartless since it was her concern for them that bothered Bakugo. Yet while Midoriya had fallen from grace, here she was, surrounded by corpses, almost kidnapped, and had someone's blood all over her and she was fine. Why was she so much better off than Kaminari, who had been deemed a latent criminal as a child, or Mina, who had simply gotten mixed up in the wrong crowd and determined to be one by association?

Those were questions for another day. Uraraka was honestly too exhausted to sort through them now. All she wanted to do was take a hot shower to get this blood off and work on the report so she could sleep. Likely everyone would need to go to a therapy session to ensure that their scores didn't get too high. Iida was constantly on them to make sure that they remained vigilant in taking care of themselves unlike a lot of Inspectors that treated their Enforcers as disposable. She supposed that part of it came from the fact that he and Midoriya had worked together. Maybe seeing him go from Inspector to Enforcer had made him realize that they needed to be taken care of as well.

A hand on her shoulder jerked Uraraka out of her thoughts. She'd expected it to be Iida, but when she looked back, she saw that it was Midoriya. "You did good. Thank you."

That caught Uraraka off guard. She twisted her lips into a frown. "Thank you? What for?"

"For believing in him," Midoriya said, "for saving him." He pulled his hand away and dropped his gaze down to Bakugou. The two of them were often at odds with each other – to the point where the rumors about Bakugou forcing his score to go up didn't seem like rumors – but it was obvious in moments like these that Midoriya admired him. "Not many people would, if any, especially Inspectors."

"Would you?" Uraraka asked.

Midoriya's lips twitched into a half smile. "I'm here, aren't I?"

It wasn't Bakugou's fault that Midoriya was an Enforcer, but he'd had something to do with it. One day, she would ask him about it. For now, she let him keep the secret. It was theirs and she had no right to it. Enforcers had so little that was actually theirs to keep. They couldn't own much of anything and had little more freedom than the latent criminals locked away under therapy. She'd let them decide to tell her on their own time.

When Midoriya walked away to help Kaminari, Uraraka crouched down next to Bakugou. She picked up his fallen Dominator and set it aside next to hers. In anyone else's hands but theirs, the weapons were harmless. With her hands freed, she brushed his ashe-blond hair out of his face. It was softer than she'd expected from how spikey it looked. She imagined that he rolled out of bed like this and tousled it to look just right. He had an image to keep up, after all. The thought made her smile.

 _You're more than this,_ Uraraka thought. _You can be more._

This wasn't where his story ended. He still had a job to do and a life to live.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes:** When I was writing this next installment/chapter, I realized the chapter was either going to be around 3k or 8-9k and I really had to come to terms with what I was going to do. After talking with EmeraldWaves, I decided to make do a shorter chapter since this has become a chaptered-fic (and I've been planning on it for a while). The good news is that since I decided this last second the third chapter is pretty much done as well. So that's nice. I'm calling these two chapters in my head, "The ones where Todoroki steals the show." I've got about 100 headcanons for this AU so you're about to get a boatload of more world-building thrown at you.

* * *

Three weeks passed and nothing of event happened. That was unusual in itself, but Uraraka didn't complain. Neither did any of the Enforcers under her command. Any sort of break was a welcomed one, even if it meant dealing with more trivial jobs or paperwork. Things weren't entirely quiet (it would never be quiet at the CID), but they didn't have to do anything nearly as intense as the bank robbery and hostage situation.

It would take them a while to recover from that, although no one said anything. Iida ordered them to take time off, which had frustrated Bakugou, but he hadn't exactly been in the position to argue. He never would be again, even if she had given him some leeway, but it was necessary. He had been furious when Iida had taken him out of the field entirely for a week, but considering that he had technically been deemed too far gone and should've been eliminated, it was a price worth paying.

"Just listen to him, Kacchan," Deku had told him placatingly, his hands hovering in the air. "He's right and you know it. This will be good for you."

"We don't have the luxury of giving me 'leave' to clear my fucking head," Bakugou had snapped back. "We're already down a person since Kaminari is in the hospital. You wanna add more stress to you and Ashido?"

Deku (Sybil bless him) had actually smiled. "We can handle ourselves accordingly in your absence."

"Like you did when you were an Inspector?" Bakugou had countered.

It was a cold remark, meant to deeply cut Deku, but instead of getting what he wanted, the other enforcer had only sighed. Kaminari would've got upset. Mina would have argued with him. Deku accepted him as he was and rolled with it. His psycho pass score was so low, but a few points above the limit, he was only a dog in society's eyes. It wasn't fair. She had helped Bakugou's score drop enough to save him, but Deku could never go back to a normal life.

"You crossed the boundaries," Deku had told him. "Deal with the consequences." Bakugou's expression hardened. Even if Deku's voice was careful and even kind, there was an edge to it that Uraraka couldn't ignore while eavesdropping at her desk. "Be grateful that you aren't dead and get your head straight. You might not get another chance." He took a deep breath. "I am so happy that Inspector Uraraka saved you, but don't you dare act like you're above your actions. Take the leave. Get over yourself. Come back to work and do your job."

There had been more grumbling complaints from Bakugou, but he quit fighting Iida after that and the tension bled out of the office. It was quiet without both Bakugou and Kaminari not there. Being essentially chained to a bed probably would have driven Kaminari crazy had Uraraka not brought him his handheld gaming consoles. She had tried to visit Bakugou in the apartments the enforcers lived in, but he had not been very receptive.

It strangely hurt her, especially after what they had gone through at the bank. Uraraka had thought (hoped?) that they understood each other more and would be closer. He had saved her life and she had saved his. She knew he was a better person than he acted like and he finally seemed to respect her. But then he didn't want anything to do with her during his leave and when he came back he was almost indifferent about her. He barely argued with her anymore, but being a mere blip on his radar stung even more.

Uraraka was waiting for the coffee to be brewed in the Inspector's lounge area when the door opened. She expected it to be Iida, asking where she was, but was surprised to see that it was actually Inspector Todoroki from Division 4. He had been Iida's partner before her. Despite his two-toned hair and mismatched eyes, there was a completely blank expression on his face that made a person feel the urge to look over him. She knew inherently that he would only be able to be read by the Sybil System. His psycho pass score could've been over three hundred and she probably would never have known.

Todoroki caught eyes with her, having probably noticed her staring, and nodded briefly. "Inspector Uraraka."

She instantly snapped out of it, stepping forward and holding out a hand. "Hi! I, um, I don't think we've met."

For a moment, Todoroki looked at her hand, like he didn't know what she meant by holding it out to him, but then he took it and gave it a proper shake. "I've seen you around before, but no, we've not properly met."

"Oh." She hadn't even noticed him. It shouldn't have been possible. Someone with Todoroki's looks should've stood out, not only because of his physical attributes, but because, well, he was handsome. However, somehow, in all the times he had seen her, she had apparently not noticed him. She had seen him once or twice, but that was it. "I guess work keeps us busy."

"It does indeed."

Uraraka waited for him to continue, but he didn't. She realized he was content with leaving the conversation as it was as they now both waited for the coffee to finish brewing. It was only awkward for her. He didn't seem bothered by it in the slightest, arms folded loosely across his chest as he eyed the machine boredly. With that impassive attitude, he made for a good Inspector, which made her all the more curious about why he'd asked to transfer departments after getting into a fight with Bakugou.

Upon receiving her position in Division 2, she had been told that Bakugou had a habit of clouding Inspector's psycho pass scores. Iida had more or less told her it was well-known, but the CID did nothing about it because his score remained under lethal action (the bank robbery being an exception) and he was the best Enforcer they had. She had found out in the past week that she had been placed in his Division specifically because her score consistently stayed even and her hue clear.

From the rumors she had heard before and information she had gleaned from both her partner and the other Enforcers, their higher-ups had hoped the same for Todoroki. His score was good. His hue was good. Despite the horrors of their job, he did not struggle. It was only until he had replaced Deku as the Inspector and Iida's partner did everything begin to deteriorate. He wouldn't be the first Inspector whose hue Bakugou had apparently clouded. Other Divisions didn't like working with him because he contaminated them as well.

In the end, before his psycho pass score could get higher beyond salvaging, Todoroki left without a notice and showed up weeks later in Division 4, not even explaining himself to his old partner. Uraraka couldn't imagine how Iida had felt over it. Had he felt betrayed? Hurt? Defeated? Accepting? To be honest, she was too afraid to ask him. Her partner was an open book - he believed that was the best way with dealing with any stressful emotions and keeping his score in check - so she knew he would answer her honestly if she asked him. She didn't. It felt too personal and sometimes personal things like that could mess with a person's score too.

It was a tricky balance, one that she'd not dealt with growing up. No matter what, her score didn't seem to raise. It might jump up a point or two here and there, but that was normal as someone aged. Everyone's did. Bakugou had been shocked and confused that hers didn't raise normal for an Inspector. She understood that now. Even Iida's score raised despite his careful observations and routine therapy sessions.

Uraraka meant to come up with a better way of asking, but her endless curiosity got the best of her and she ended up blurting out, "Why did you request to transfer Divisions?"

Looking mildly surprised, Todoroki blinked at her and murmured, "Request? Is that what they're calling it?"

"Huh?" Uraraka stared at him. "What do you mean? You requested to transfer to Division 4, didn't you? That's what everyone told me."

"Hm, it does make sense." The surprised look left Todoroki's face, replaced with a more thoughtful one. No, it was more like considering as he pondered over her questions. His response didn't make any sense to her… Unless he hadn't actually requested to transfer Divisions. Why would people tell her that then? Surely she would've caught on if someone was lying to her, but not everyone could be in on it. Even he seemed caught off guard. "You've been with Division 2 for seven months, yes?"

Uraraka nodded. "Yeah, I joined a few weeks after you left. Other Inspectors filled in until I took your position."

"I've heard that your psycho pass score rarely wavers," Todoroki stated. She nodded uneasily. "Maybe they finally found the right fit for the Division then. It was unfortunate that Iida was left on his own for that long."

The coffee machine beeped, alerting them that it was ready, but neither one of them made a move as they stared each other down. It was difficult to keep his gaze. She found herself feeling somewhat grateful that Todoroki was an Inspector and not an Enforcer. She couldn't help but think that he would be scary as an Enforcer, which didn't make sense since he shouldn't be scary now. Something about the way he looked at her, devoid of emotion, as if he was judging her like the Sybil System itself, unsettled her.

Chewing her lip, Uraraka quietly said, "I heard...I heard it had something to do with Bakugou. I was just wondering…"

What? She was wondering what? Of course she was curious about him. How could she not be? She knew that the others knew more about his past than they were letting on, but she didn't want to ask anyone on her team. Iida would tell her without hesitation - and she knew that he knew - but she felt like it was something she had to figure out on her own. Had he been labeled a latent criminal as a child like Kaminari? Had he committed a crime? Had he just always been like this? Had he been something more and lost it all? There was so much potential in him. Having him locked away, used as a dog, seemed like such a waste.

But if he had done what everyone said he did to Todoroki… If he purposely clouded Inspectors' hues or made their psycho pass scores raise to ruin them, then how could she trust him? She wanted to trust him, which she knew Iida and many others would say was a bad idea, but they'd had her back so many times before. They were good people, despite their scores, even Bakugou, who had risked everything knowing he would die to save her.

"Bakugou, huh?" Todoroki sighed. "Now there's a name I'd like to forget."

Uraraka's heart dropped into the pit of her stomach. "Oh, did he-?"

"Would you like to have dinner with me on Saturday?"

Her brain froze and she choked on her tongue. It was such an abrupt and drastic change in the conversation. She didn't know how to respond at first. Uraraka gawked at him, hoping to find some kind of clue on his face or in his eyes, but no, they remained completely blank. She wouldn't have been able to get a read on him if she tried. To be honest, she was shocked that the Sybil System had been able to read his score.

"I…" Uraraka didn't know what to say. She knew what her friends would say: she needed to get out more; she needed a life outside of work; she needed to live a little; she needed a man in her life. They all said she was focusing too much on her job and that could be dangerous in the CID. Maybe they were right. But Todoroki? She wasn't so sure.

"Say yes," he told her.

Uraraka furrowed her brow. "I don't-"

"Please," Todoroki continued, a little more forcefully. "You want to know more about my time in Division 2. I think it would be better if we could get more acquainted with each other...privately."

For a moment, Uraraka couldn't understand what he was trying to say to her. It didn't actually sound like he was asking her out anymore. Judging from the serious way he was staring at her - the intent look in his eyes, the sharp set of his jaw - there was a little more than a date on his mind. His eyes flickered around the office. Hers did as well when she caught sight of the camera and everything finally clicked for her.

If they were going to have a private conversation about why he had (or apparently had not) transferred Divisions and one of the most problematic Enforcers in the history of the CID, this was one of the worst places to have it. The Sybil System had jurisdiction to scan everywhere, but none more so than here so it could closely monitor the people tasked to uphold its judgment. It needed to make sure they remained on task and on the straight and narrow, keeping a close eye on them so they could be alerted to even the most minute changes in their scores.

A smile worked its way onto Uraraka's face. "I would love to have dinner with you."

To be honest, she wasn't that great of a liar. People weren't supposed to lie since it could potentially cloud their hues. It wouldn't be a lie then. Even if it was under false pretenses, she wouldn't mind having dinner with Todoroki. It would be good for her to get to know the other Inspectors more and he seemed...decent enough.

Iida had said he was distant to the point of being strangely detached. It wasn't that he had loathed the Enforcers, which many Inspectors did, or even that he didn't care about them. He had stepped up to help and even save them, according to Deku. Inspector Todoroki simply didn't allow his emotions to bleed through for others to see, not even his partner, which apparently had irritated the hell out of Bakugou. After months of pushing and needling, Bakugou finally got a rise out of him and it had not ended prettily.

Todoroki held out his hand. This time, Uraraka knew what he was asking and she fished her phone out of her pocket before handing it to him. "Text me your address. I'll pick you up around seven o'clock. Wear something very nice, but don't worry about money. If something comes up, I will let you know in advance." After putting his contact information into her phone, he gave it back to her and settled a steady look on her. If she looked close enough, she thought she could see the hint of a smile on his face, but it was hard to tell. "I look forward to seeing you."

"Uh, yeah…" Uraraka watched as he stepped forward to pour himself a cup of coffee. It wasn't nearly as good as the stuff from the shop next door, but it did the trick. When he took a sip and nodded approvingly, she pepped up. "Yeah! I'll see you then. I'm excited. Something very nice? Are we going somewhere fancy?"

"You'll find out Saturday night, won't you?" Todoroki mused before he swept out of the office, leaving her alone. The sudden silence made her feel as if she had hallucinated the whole thing. Had she really just met her predecessor, only to have him ask her out on a not-date? It totally sounded like an excuse to speak about things the CID might not want them to talk about freely. This was going to be interesting at the least.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes:** I. Love. Writing. Todoroki. I've had most of this backstory in my head for a while, ever since I wrote the first chapter ages ago, hence why I really wanted to expand more on this fic. I'm really glad I did. Thanks to EmeraldWaves for being so encouraging while I wrote this!

* * *

Instead of hanging around the office like she normally did on Saturday, Uraraka clocked out when her shift ended. If Iida thought it was strange, he didn't say anything. Actually, she got the sense that he approved her leaving. It was important to maintain a balance, which meant having a life outside of work. If she was gathering her things to leave the moment she could, then she obviously had plans she couldn't be late for. He would stay behind, but she also knew that he took his older brother to rehab on Saturdays, so it didn't make sense for him to leave.

"Oh, someone's leaving in a hurry!" Kaminari called out. His right arm was still in a sling, recovering from what he had been shot during the bank robbery. It had been a little worse than they'd originally thought, the bullet having struck bone. She hadn't been able to tell at the time. Clammy and sweaty as he had been from the effort of staying awake after getting shot, he'd still been able to move around and watch her every move. "You got a hot date or something?"

Uraraka smiled at him indulgently. "Or something."

Kaminari whistled. "Lying is bad, you know! Maybe Bakugou should check your score."

Even though she knew it was a bad idea, Uraraka's eyes flickered over to Bakugou, who had returned from his own brief leave last week. He was sitting at his desk, focused on her instead of the camera feeds on his computer. It was hard to tell how he felt from his gaze, but it was fiery as usual. She thought… Maybe she was making things up, but she couldn't help but think that he looked disappointed. Angry? No, he usually looked like that. This was different. He didn't look pleased. It made her feel a little guilty.

She could just ask him - straight up ask what he was thinking - but she knew he wouldn't tell her, just as she knew he wouldn't open up to her about why he was an Enforcer. He wanted her to figure it out on her own and only then would he maybe talk to her about it. For however loud and brash he was, Bakugou was a private person. A part of her did feel guilty for prying, but she needed to know more about the people working underneath her. She knew everyone else's except for his backstory.

What made him tick? Why was he the way he was now? How had he become an Enforcer? He was so good at his job. How was he that good? And could she truly trust him or was her care misplaced?

Bakugou didn't reach for a Dominator to check her score like he had done nearly every day in the past before the bank robbery turned massacre. He simply turned his attention back to the computer screen and got back to acting like he was working.

"Well, even if it isn't a date, you must have plans if you're actually leaving on time instead of hanging out with us," Mina pointed out, leaning forward in her seat. Her eyes were shining brightly, a hopeful look on her face. She was such a friendly person. Uraraka bet she had gone out every Saturday night with her friends. "Who's it with? An old friend, classmate, co-worker?" Without meaning to, Uraraka stiffened, which was exactly the wrong thing to do. Mina fully admitted to not being the smartest of the Enforcers, but she knew people very well. "Is it someone we know?"

"Maybe," Uraraka conceded, an embarrassed smile on her face, "but that's all I'm telling you!"

Mina huffed and flopped dramatically in her chair. "Fine! But I wanna know how your date goes! Tell us all the juicy details on Monday. I'm living vicariously through you and so far you're almost as boring as Iida."

Iida cleared his throat. "I am a professional-"

"Boring!" Mina interrupted.

"Total snoozefest," Kaminari agreed.

Deku gave him a sheepish grin. "You could stand to get out more."

Iida looked positively betrayed, gaping with his mouth open a little. All Uraraka could do was pat him on the shoulder and walk out of the office. She didn't look back at Bakugou, no matter how much she wanted to right now. She didn't think he was paying attention to her anyway - or at least he was trying to appear like he wasn't.

He and the other Enforcers didn't have the same freedom and ability to do whatever they wanted on their nights off. The apartments they lived in were nice, but the building was a glorified prison and they all knew it. They couldn't go on dates or go out for drinks with friends. It wasn't fair of her and Iida to have those chances and not take advantage of them. What was the point of being free if they were going to act like they were chained to their job as well?

Once she got to her small apartment, Uraraka worked on figuring out what to wear. She had a little under two hours to get ready, but that didn't mean anything. Wear something very nice. What did that mean? Also, what if she didn't have anything nice enough to wear? What would Mina wear to something like this? Sighing to herself, Uraraka flipped through her options until she finally settled on what she considered her nicest outfit, a dark floral dress, but then spent her entire showering wondering if the pattern was too much. Maybe she should go for a black dress.

Also, why was she getting so stressed out about something that didn't actually feel like a date? They were just trying to keep up appearances so people wouldn't get suspicious. (No, it was so the Sybil System wouldn't get suspicious. Her stomach turned at the thought, but she ignored it. Why was Todoroki acting so paranoid about this?)

It was a little after 6:30 when she finished getting ready. She sat down on the couch and turned on one of her favorite television shows, but didn't concentrate on it much. By the time seven rolled around, she couldn't have said what the episode had been about. When the doorbell for her apartment rang, she startled on the couch, but then got up to check her comm and saw that it was Todoroki at the door.

Uraraka looked around her messy apartment. It wouldn't be rude if she simply met him outside, right?

It was nice enough out for her not to need a jacket, so she simply grabbed her purse and phone and then locked up her place and rushed down the stairs. She opened the door, somewhat flushed from hurrying, right when Todoroki had been about to ring the bell again. His eyes widened almost imperceptibly at her sudden appearance, but then it was gone, replaced by that guarded expression that looked so carefully placed on his face.

"You look nice," Todoroki told her.

"Oh, thanks." Uraraka blushed. "You look…" Devastatingly handsome. "Good?"

"Been a while?" Todoroki asked conversationally as he held out an arm.

Uraraka nodded. "You could say that." She took his and let him guide her to his car, which was parked in front of the building. Oh, it was nice - all black and sleek. She had kind of been expecting him to use one of the department issued cars like Iida. He was also really good at keeping up pretenses, especially when he opened the passenger door for her, but then the cameras installed at the doors of apartment buildings were directly connected to the Sybil System for safety reasons. "What about you?"

"I go on dates all the time," Todoroki told her as he slid into the driver's seat.

That caught Uraraka off guard. "Really?"

"No." Todoroki started the car. Uraraka gawked at him as he gave her a faintly amused look. She might've been insulted with him for tricking her like that if the expression didn't throw her off even more. Wasn't he supposed to be super serious all the time? That was what she had heard about him from everyone - that he lacked a sense of humor and didn't care about showing emotion. "I fooled you though, didn't I?"

As he angled the car back into the street and began to drive, Uraraka got the sense that a lot of what she had learned about her predecessor from others was wrong. Well, maybe it wasn't wrong so much as incomplete. The Enforcers on her team were observant, even Kaminari in his own way, and surely Iida would have known his partner better. He might have been very professional, as he said often, but he was very kind and went out of his way to help people. However, he had been the one to tell her that Todoroki requested a transfer without giving him an explanation or any sort of warning. How could so many people be off about him?

"Why are you doing this?" Uraraka asked abruptly. Todoroki looked her out of the corner of his mismatched eyes, but he didn't respond. "I mean, I get why you didn't want to talk there, but we could easily have the conversation here now. It might even be safer here. The cameras outside wouldn't be able to get a perfect read on us here and there would be no audio."

"A private conversation in a parked car could be of note," Todoroki pointed out, "especially after you asked me so directly about Bakugou and why I'm no longer on the team." He changed lanes with ease, never once slowing down. He drove exactly at the speed limit and never fully looked away from the road. "It would be suspicious."

"Are you that paranoid?" Uraraka asked. "The Sybil System would know you don't mean any arm. I was the one that asked questions and my hue is fine."

"My hue is not," Todoroki responded. His tone was so even that it made Uraraka blink. Most people would panic over the idea of their hue being clouded and yet he seemed more than accepting. "I can't be too careful at this point, even if my overall score is low again. Plus, I've been under a little more scrutiny since I - ah, what was it? - requested to transfer Divisions. If anyone thinks I might cross the line, I could lose my job."

Uraraka paled. "Is your score so high that you're in danger of becoming an Enforcer?"

Todoroki shook his head. "No, not anymore. Besides, I'd be taken off the force before it comes to that. The Chief won't allow it."

At first, Uraraka didn't understand. There was so much hidden between the lines and just under the surface with Todoroki that she had to do math to figure out things. When it finally did hit her, the realization made her feel stupid. How had she not realized it before? "The Chief is your father." Todoroki nodded his head. "I figured you were related because of your names, but I didn't realize the relation was that close. Is he why you're an Inspector?"

"He wouldn't have it any other way," Todoroki explained. "He wants me to become the Chief after he retires, but it's not looking good." He glanced into the rearview mirror before turning on his turn signal and getting into the right lane in order to make a turn. "He had the same hopes with my older siblings, but after my oldest brother's score rose too high before he could even become an Inspector…" He cleared his throat. "It's all on me."

"That…" Uraraka bit her lip and looked down at her hands clutching her purse tightly in her lap. "That must be a lot of pressure on your shoulders. It would be difficult for anyone to maintain their score."

"Not you," Todoroki interjected. She turned to look at him, a somewhat alarmed expression on her face. He kept his eyes on the road. "I looked up your score. Besides a few small spikes - which seem to correspond with a certain Enforcer - you're better than good." The alarm turned to shock. "Yes, I know, it's a bit...invasive, but I'll admit that my father being who he is sometimes comes in handy. At any rate, your score is checked multiple times a day without you ever knowing, so is it that big of a deal?"

It didn't sit right with her, but he had a point. "It's still kind of rude."

"Most definitely," Todoroki agreed without missing a beat. He wasn't ashamed at all about his behavior. To him, it was little more than a routine check. "Your score is impressive though. It's gone up a few points here and there since you became an Inspector, but that's to be expected. I would've been more concerned if it didn't. That would've made me suspicious."

"I thought a relatively flat score was a good thing," Uraraka said.

"It is - until it isn't," Todoroki responded. He made another turn, his hands effortlessly gliding over the steering wheel. It was graceful. "Have you heard the rumors about people who are asymptomatic?" Uraraka shook her head. What in the world was that? It sounded like… Well, it sounded like he meant there were people who didn't have the symptoms that showed when they were likely to commit crimes. "Regardless if you have or not, they're true. There are people out there that the Sybil System can't read. Did you know that you were monitored and under suspicion for a while?"

A breath of air was caught in Uraraka's throat. "What?"

"The entire history of a person's Psycho Pass score can be accessed," Todoroki continued. "The Sybil System uses it to base whether or not there is a likelihood of a person's score rising above the criminal level. If it decides there is, even before a person is anywhere near exceeding the 100 points, they're monitored more extensively. It's why we're alerted so quickly when a person's score does go past the point of no return. They're already being watched."

"That's…" Uraraka didn't know what to say. It was horrific. It was like the System had already judged people and declared them beyond saving before they even had the chance. Of course, it stood that many people's scores who were put on that watch list never went above the mark, but they would be tagged for the rest of their lives - and they would never even know it. That sounded horribly unfair to her and an even grosser invasion. They gave away most of the rights of their privacy for the sake of protection, but that didn't mean they should be categorized and labeled as a potential criminal when they were miles away from it.

Todoroki found a spot to park along the street, parallel parking with ease in between two expensive-looking cars. She caught a glimpse of his eyes in the rearview mirror before they flickered away to pay attention to what he was doing. A ding on one of these vehicles would no doubt send a civilian's score up.

"Sounds terrible, doesn't it?" Todoroki said as he turned off his car. She nodded mutely, still unable to come up with the right words to say. "It goes both ways. People's whose scores stand out because they don't move are watched as well, especially since evidence of asymptomatic people came out a few years ago. You do realize that your score is more of an anomaly, don't you?"

"No, I…" Uraraka furrowed her brow. "It's been like this my whole life. I don't know why."

Todoroki shrugged. "There probably isn't a reason, to be honest. Some people just have a better handle on their scores than others without even really doing anything." He gave her a ghost of a smile. "But it certainly makes you interesting, so I figured I might as well ask you out since you're so clearly fishing for information."

"You know, I heard you were straight-laced and didn't like to have any fun," Uraraka told him.

"Let me guess," Todoroki replied, "Bakugou told you that." She neither had to say anything or nod her head to confirm he was right. He knew just by looking at her. "I expected him to do his job. He liked to test the boundaries. I wasn't fond of the idea of having to kill one of my Enforcers. We agreed to disagree for the most part." He inclined his head to the building on the corner of the block. "Shall we?"

When they stepped out of the car, Uraraka felt instantly exposed. Now that she knew the Sybil System had been keeping an even closer eye on her, it made her anxious, even though she knew that she had nothing to worry about. It was watching her because she had nothing to worry about and it knew that somehow. A part of her wasn't so sure that Todoroki knew so much because of the extra access he had thanks to his father being the Chief. This knowledge sounded a lot like something he wasn't supposed to know and had found out on his own anyway.

The restaurant was a lot fancier than the places she normally ate out at. She never would've come here on her own. No wonder he had told her to dress nicely. It was elegant and classy, definitely meant for the elite. She wouldn't be able to afford a full meal here on her Inspector salary. Todoroki couldn't either, but then he came from money. Not only did his father get paid well, but she had heard a rumor in the CID that his family was old money and they had been wealthy for years. He didn't need a job, to be honest, but apparently his father thought otherwise.

Even to the point where he had already pushed one of his children past the breaking point.

Uraraka watched Todoroki out of the corner of her eyes as he spoke with the people in the restaurant. He was polite and impassive at the same time, letting nothing through his veneer, but he had requested a transfer after coming to blows with Bakugou and almost ruining his psycho pass score. She never would've been able to tell looking at him now. He looked absolutely in control of every aspect of his emotions and thoughts. She would have guessed that his hue was even clearer than hers. But what was it really?

Then again, she had been taken aback by Deku's score as well. 105. It didn't make sense. He was so compassionate and kind-hearted. Never judge a book by its cover - and never judge a person by their score. That was what she lived by, especially after joining the CID. If she had done those things, she would've condemned Bakugou long ago and he most likely wouldn't be alive now for her to be asking about him.

As they walked through the restaurant to their table, Uraraka picked at her dress. Had she worn something nice enough? It wasn't even a real date, but she was suddenly stressing over making him look bad. Only when Todoroki leaned in and muttered, "You look fine, so stop worrying or you might mess up your hue," did she stop. She shot him a tiny glare, which only seemed to amuse him. He did have a sense of humor, after all. She let him pull out her chair and push her closer to the table before he sat down and ordered a bottle of wine.

"You don't have to go all out for this," Uraraka pointed out. Because it wasn't a real date and they both knew it.

Todoroki ran a finger around the lip of his currently empty wine glass. "Might as well make it look the part and have fun while doing it." He smiled at her, but it didn't seem real. "Did you know there are actually fewer cameras in the more upper-class parts of cities? It makes sense, considering that there's statistically less crime, but it's very classist. And it is also why 'white collar' crimes aren't detected as quickly. There's a tad bit more...wiggle room with the Sybil's monitoring here."

"That's why you asked me out and took me here," Uraraka said, "so we could get away with talking more freely without looking suspicious. You were right: a date in public is a much more covert than a secret conversation in a car." She leaned back in her seat and eyed him curiously. "You sure do know how to make a girl feel special."

"Well, we could've taken this back to my apartment," Todoroki quipped. Uraraka flushed. "I didn't think so. Plus, you get a free meal out of it; I get to have my favorite wine; we share some information that the government might not like us to know. We both win."

It still didn't set right with Uraraka. "How can you do this knowing it might raise your score or cloud-?" She clamped her mouth shut when their waiter came to the table, opening the bottle of wine and pouring them each a glass upon Todoroki's instruction. She watched the deep red liquid spill into her glass.

After ordering an appetizer, Todoroki picked up his glass of wine and said, "Cheers," before taking a sip. He set the glass back down before she could even think to pick up hers. "To answer your question - ah, that's what I needed after this hellish week - I don't. But three months worth of therapy would suggest that I'm back to normal and my score actually dropped to a safe level and hasn't risen since my return to the CID."

Uraraka paused before taking a sip of the wine. "Three months of therapy…?"

"I didn't transfer to Division 4 immediately," Todoroki explained. "I took an extended leave to be with my sister when she got ill - or so I've been told. My father didn't even bother telling me the cover story he came up with after I was forced to go on leave to receive emergency therapy for my score."

"Did you...did you not request a transfer?" Uraraka asked.

Todoroki shook his head. "No, I did not. I wanted to stay in Division 2. My father took me off when he found out I had stopped attending my ordered therapy sessions with the CID's psychiatrist and my score made an abrupt jump to 98."

She actually gasped. His score had gotten that dangerously close to teetering over the edge and he was still working as an Inspector? Emergency therapy might have been putting it nicely. Some people were put in facilities for the rest of their lives when their score got that high, too afraid they would turn into full-on deviants if they continued to live in the real world.

It wasn't any of her business, but Uraraka couldn't help but want to know. "What's your score now?"

"A cool 68, which is nothing on yours, of course," Todoroki told her without hesitation. She gawked at him in shock. "I know. It doesn't seem possible. No one's score has dropped that dramatically before." He picked up the wine glass again, but didn't drink out of it. She still held hers in the air, not having tried it yet. "It concerned the therapists too. They thought I might've gone into shock or something equally terrible. It wasn't that. I just… I don't know. I accepted my life as it was. I got over things I'd tried to bury. I let go of everything bringing my score up - and that did include Bakugou."

Uraraka finally took a sip of the wine. It was drier than she normally liked, but it had a deep, rich flavor to it that made her like it anyway. It didn't take sour taste out of her mouth completely. "So he did cause your score to raise and nearly force you out."

"He was a part of it, to be sure," Todoroki told her honestly, "but I wouldn't say he was the reason it happened. There were a lot of reasons and, quite frankly, my score was raising before I joined Division 2 after Midoriya was forced to become an Enforcer. He just made the progression a lot...faster, is all."

"You don't sound mad at him," Uraraka pointed out carefully.

"I'm not." He took another sip of his wine. She gave him a look of disbelief. "I'm not - truly. I'm sure everyone thinks I am, Bakugou included, but I'm not. We had our differences and we argued all the time. I did hate him for a time, but, what records can't tell you, is that I once took a bullet for him. It hit me in the shoulder, but it still hurt like hell. He was furious with me about that - screaming about it needlessly raising my score and I was being stupid. I didn't want anyone under me to die. It was important to me that they didn't die. He didn't understand that."

Uraraka allowed a small smile to grace her face. "He did the same to me. After he saved my life, it forced his score to jump higher and Iida almost…" She took a deep breath and set her glas down. "I couldn't let him die, not after what he'd done. He had known it would raise his score to a dangerous level, but he did it anyway. How could I let him die? He's not just a dog like a lot of people view Enforcers. He's not a bad person."

"An asshole, but not a bad person," Todoroki agreed. "He was one of the people who was monitored for nearly his entire life and flagged to be watched more." That didn't surprise her. It would've shocked her more to find out that the Sybil System hadn't marked him as one to watch. His volatile behavior spoke for him and, according to the others on the team, he had been like that for as long as they'd known him. "It's a wonder, considering he was marked at an early age, that he was allowed to become an Inspector."

Uraraka's heart dropped into the pit of her stomach. "What?"

"Ah," Todoroki continued thoughtfully, seemingly unaware of her world crashing down, "he did have top marks. A near-perfect grade. The Sybil System must've okayed it or the people at the CID got greedy. They wanted him as an Inspector and they knew, even if his score rose too high, he'd make one hell of an Enforcer." He shook his head and looked at her. How could he talk so calmly about all of this? "They weren't wrong. He's one of the best Enforcers that I've ever seen."

"The Sybil System knew the stress of being an Inspector would force his score to rise too high," Uraraka said in a hollow tone, "and it used that to its advantage."

Her heart beat slowly as she was forced to swallow down the truth. Todoroki nodded. Bakugou had been an Inspector? That must have been why he and Midoriya seemed to know each other so well. They must have worked together as Inspectors before their scores ruined their lives. Had they been partners before Midoriya partnered with Iida? Did Iida know this? He had to know, but Bakugou being an Inspector wasn't in his personnel file. Why?

"It's there to do a job and protect us," Todoroki told her, "but the System can still eat people alive to sustain itself. We will always be in need of Enforcers and the Inspectors pointed to keep them on a leash. It got both of those in Bakugou and I'm sure it figured one day he would use up all his usefulness and it would be rid of him." He tilted his head. "Too bad you saved him. I'm sure the higher-ups are mad about that."

"Has your father said anything about it?"

"I wouldn't know if he has," Todoroki replied. "We haven't spoken in a while. It turns out he was one of the reasons why my hue was so clouded." He didn't look bothered at all. Uraraka couldn't imagine not talking with her parents or them being part of why her score was high. It made her feel sick. "I actually convinced my therapist to send my father a letter stating that I needed space from him for the sake of my score and mental health - and he's the one that sent me there to begin with. Best thing he's done for me."

Uraraka stared at him. "How can you just…?"

"Talk about it like it's nothing?" Todoroki shrugged. "I guess I just figured it wasn't worth getting worked up over. I used to take everything in and bottle it up. Add to the bottle, close it up, until there was no room. Of course my score was going to get ruined that way. To everyone else, it looked like I had the perfect score, but in truth, I wasn't dealing with anything. I was a disaster waiting to happen."

The appetizer arrived, but Uraraka didn't feel very hungry anymore. She hadn't even looked at the menu. When their waiter asked if they were ready to order, she opened her mouth to tell him just that, but Todoroki ordered for the both of them. Beforehand, that might've irritated her - him assuming what she wanted - but honestly, she didn't feel much like thinking about food. He must have known that and extended a helping hand by doing it for her.

"I had no idea that Bakugou was an Inspector," Uraraka said quietly.

"One of the best in that as well," Todoroki said. "I was on a different Division, but everyone talked about him. He threw himself headfirst into every case, worked himself to the bone, went at it hard every time." He picked at the appetizer with his chopsticks and then waved at her to try it as well. She wasn't hungry, but she picked up her chopsticks and tried some of it anyway. It was absolutely delicious. She didn't care. "The problem is that working that way as an Inspector is a very dangerous thing to do. Midoriya got onto him all the time about it."

"Ah, so they were partners," Uraraka surmised. "I figured once you said Bakugou was an Inspector."

Todoroki sighed. "They were both the best and worst paired up Inspectors the CID has seen. Their success rate was higher than any other Division, but they had more incidents and complaints filed against them as well. Bakugou ran his Enforcers to the ground. He didn't like easing up. He pushed them to do their jobs the best of their ability - and they got the job done, but being an Inspector is a lot more delicate of a job than people think."

Uraraka certainly didn't like the implications of that statement. "There's a give and take."

"There is," Todoroki agreed, "but Bakugou never saw it that way. His Enforcers would do their jobs and they would do it well. He didn't take no for an answer. The higher-ups liked that about him." It hurt. Uraraka's stomach twisted. When she had figured out that Todoroki had information on Bakugou, she hadn't expected to hear any of this. "He didn't care much for them. He didn't care much for the therapy sessions Inspectors are required to attend. He didn't care much for maintaining a proper balance in his team. They burned through Enforcers despite Midoriya's best efforts."

"And the Sybil System and the higher-ups didn't care," Uraraka finished.

"No," Todoroki responded flatly.

Uraraka's grip on her chopsticks tightened. "Do you know why or how his score went over the mark?"

"I never asked," Todoroki said, shaking his head. "It's this unspoken rule that Inspectors never do when one of their own falls to the other side. If their partner is any good, they won't speak either. And everyone knew that Midoriya was very protective of Bakugou. No one wanted him as an Enforcer and, despite the fact that it would raise his score no matter what, he wanted Bakugou on his team. He's always been good like that." A small frown appeared on his face. It made him look genuinely sad. "It's a shame what happened to him. I really thought he was going to make it - become one of the longest-running Inspectors and peacefully retire to the countryside to teach one day."

A deep sadness gripped Uraraka's heart at the image of an older Deku teaching some sort of lesson, perhaps on criminology or psycho pass scores themselves. He was so knowledgeable about them. Whenever they were given a mission, he was always able to quickly analyze the situation and the criminal to figure out how to apprehend them. Despite the fact that Bakugou and he often butted heads, he rarely disagreed with Deku and now she knew why. At one point, it had been the two of them running the team.

"A lot of people blame Bakugou for what happened to Deku," Uraraka said sadly.

"I'm sure Midoriya takes a lot of offense to that," Todoroki replied. He did. An Enforcer on another team had made a snide comment about it before. Bakugou hadn't given a shit and ignored him, but it was one of the first times that Uraraka had seen Deku angry. He didn't like it when anyone insulted a member of their Division. "It takes away the responsibility he holds over his own actions and behavior."

"I was stunned to find out he was an Enforcer," Uraraka said. Just like she was stunned to learn that Bakugou used to be an Inspector. Now that she knew, they made sense. Bakugou's high score contrasted with Midoriya's relatively low one, but they were once again partners in a sense. They worked well together and they did their jobs even better.

"When I was on the team, his score would occasionally drop below 100," Todoroki admitted. "No one likes to talk about how it's actually possible for a person's score to go under 100 after crossing the line. It shouldn't do that. Once you commit a crime or go past the mark, you will always be one. It's extraordinarily rare, but it happens."

Uraraka swallowed down the lump in her throat, somehow managing to keep tears out of her eyes. "It's not fair. None of this is fair."

"The Sybil System is based on fairness," Todoroki countered, although she knew he didn't mean it. That was what they had been told their entire lives. The system existed to protect them. It existed to keep them safe and allow them to live their lives in peace. It analyzed the population fairly in order to bring them happiness.

Unfortunately, that meant some people had to be sacrificed. They didn't fit the parameters. Plus, the Sybil System required Enforcers in order to work. It needed criminals in order its rule to be, well, enforced. They couldn't have a society in which criminals didn't exist.

"If you start crying, people are going to think I'm a very poor date," Todoroki said dryly.

"I'm sorry." Uraraka picked up the wine again and drank nearly half of it in one go to recover. She tried her best not to let the wine slosh in the glass as she set it back down.

"Don't be," Todoroki replied. "It's a lot to take in."

Uraraka laughed, the sound a little more watery than she would've liked. "I think I'm the poor date. I've made you do nearly most of the talking." He gave her a small smile. "How about we suspend any further talk of this until after dinner? I kind of feel like I need a break from this."

"Agreed."

"Although...I do have one more question if you don't mind." Uraraka bit her lip again. He nodded for her to continue. "I'm curious: if you don't hate or blame Bakugou, then what was that last fight about that everyone thinks spurred your decision to transfer?"

"Back to Bakugou now, are we? I take you on a date and you ask about another man the whole time." There was a hint of amusement in his voice, but Uraraka thought he was using it to mask the suddenly tense way he held himself. This wasn't a comfortable thing for him to talk about, despite the nonchalant way he acted. Some things did get to him and it was clear that, even if he didn't consider Bakugou to be the cause, he still had played a role in it.

Uraraka waved a hand in the air. "I'm sorry. If you don't want to talk about it - I don't want it to mess with your hue-"

"No, it's not that," Todoroki interrupted. "Besides, there's a chance you'll come across this situation and you need to be aware of it. Not everyone can be saved, not even the innocent. Sybil's judgment is black and white and one day you will hate it. You will disagree with it. You will want to make your own choice. And you will be wrong."

"I don't…"

"We were called in on a domestic dispute," Todoroki explained in a monotone voice. She could tell it was on purpose. He was forcing all of the emotion out of his voice. "Apparently the father had been abusing his family for a while, but because he was unemployed, he rarely left their house where his score could be monitored. Even then, his score wasn't exceptionally high, not even after he got blackout drunk and killed his wife."

Uraraka lifted a hand to her mouth. This certainly wasn't a dinner appropriate conversation, but it was something she needed to hear. Todoroki was right about that, as much as she hated it. She hated it whenever their Dominators were ordered to go into lethal mode. She wanted to believe that life was precious. She wanted to believe that no one actually deserved to die - that their place in it meant something and they would be missed. However, even she had been forced to end someone's life for the greater good. She had cried in the shower that night and returned to work the next day to do her job all over again.

"She had already bled out by the time we arrived on the scene and he had passed out on the couch, completely unaware of what he'd done," Todoroki continued. He tightened his hand into a fist, putting all of his tension in it and then releasing it out of his body when he stretched his fingers out on top of the table. "They had an eight-year-old son. He witnessed the whole thing. When we walked into the house, we found him holding the gun and pointing it at his father."

"No, no, it didn't," Uraraka said, quietly horrified. She had to steady herself. They were supposed to be on a date. She couldn't cry in public while on a date. Maybe they should have gone to his place and let everyone assume that they were doing something less innocent. Then she could've cried in private. Uraraka had never believed in stifling her emotions. Maybe that was part of the reason why her hue remained such a soft, beautiful, light pink.

Todoroki let out a breath. "It did. My Dominator immediately went into lethal mode. He was only eight. He had a black eye and was bleeding from his lip. He was crying so hard that he had snot everywhere and was shaking. His father hit him and his mother died trying to protect him. Now we were going to kill him anyway and her death was for nothing." He lifted a hand and gingerly touched the burn scar on the left side of his face. No one knew how he had gotten it and no one was brave or stupid enough to ask, but he'd had it before he joined the CID. "I couldn't do it - I broke down completely - so Bakugou did it for me. I lost control and basically attacked him. Midoriya and Iida had to pull me away from him and restrain me."

"He was a child," Uraraka said, using all of her strength to be okay. "It's...understandable why you reacted that way."

"I asked him why - why he did it - how he _could_ do it," Todoroki said. He took a large gulp of water. His hand was shaking, but then he took a deep breath and stilled himself again. He regained control. "He said, 'Because it's my job to keep your hands clean.' I don't think I'll ever forget that. I remember thinking he was so cold. How could he be so cold? It wasn't until I was in therapy that I realized his Dominator had been shaking. I asked Midoriya about it later when I came back. Bakugou threw up in the alley outside after. He wasn't cold at all. He was just...protecting me."

Uraraka let out her own shaky breath as something came over her. A wave of understanding that somehow brought her relief even in the wake up that terrible story. "He was doing his job. An Enforcer does the work that the Inspector can't so their scores don't go too far."

"He was," Todoroki finished in agreement. "So no, I don't blame him for what happened. I had to take time off. I was out of it. If I kept working after that, I wouldn't be able to stay on as an Inspector. Bakugou knew that. Midoriya doesn't blame him either, but I think Bakugou blames himself for Midoriya's fall. That's why he's so hard on Inspectors. They have to be the best or they can't do their job right."

"At least he doesn't check my score daily anymore," Uraraka mumbled to herself.

Todoroki heard her anyway. "He's just worried about you. There's something special about you and he knows it. He's probably afraid the job will either ruin you or take that away from you."

"This is my job," Uraraka said firmly. "I wouldn't want to be anywhere but with them."

She knew this was the end of the conversation. Honestly, she was grateful. Even if it was only for an hour, she wanted to forget about everything. When she went back to work, she wouldn't be able to look at Bakugou the same and he would know something had changed. He'd be suspicious. All she could do was hope that he didn't feel as if she'd betrayed his trust.

"You're a good person, Inspector Uraraka," Todoroki told her. He turned his head to watch as their waiter carried over their food to them, his body relaxed and his face impassive once again. "This job isn't meant for good people, so please, be careful."

That was all she could do. It was her job.


End file.
